Planning for Christmas

There is now less than 2 months to go until Christmas. Has anyone started panicking  yet?

Over the years I have tried several strategies to try and make sure that I am not leaving things to the last minute. I also generally manage to take on too many projects and then find that I do not have time to do them all.

There are several websites that can help you get organised. My favourite has been www.organizedChristmas.com. They run two plans that will help you clean, organise and prepare for Christmas. They are the Christmas Countdown and the House & HolidaysPlan.  If you sign up for these then you will receive reminder emails to keep you on track.

If you don’t want to go that in depth then Real Simple have a simpler checklist which can be found at

http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/christmas/ultimate-christmas-countdown-checklist.

Both of these sites are American based and also cover Thanksgiving. Alison May at Brocantehome has produced a Christmas Countdown which is available to purchase on her website. 

If like me you like making lists then there are plenty of example s of Christmas planners that are available to download, some  you have to pay for and some are free. I tend to download pages from Organized Christmas that I know I will use.

I personally have tried various ways of planning over the years and have developed my own plan.

October Half term – Make Christmas Cake

End of November- All presents bought.

First Weekend in December – put Christmas decorations up

First week in December – all cards written and posted.

Second week December- all presents wrapped.

The week leading up to Christmas (book off work)- Last minute things, food shopping if needed (every other year)

I don’t include deadlines for craft projects as I always try to do too much and invariably end up failing to complete them. This year I have almost managed to complete all the craft projects I have set for myself but that is only because of going to the WI craft club and working on them there. I will post pictures when they are all complete.

I have a calendar printed out and in my Christmas planner where I write in things we are doing and then in November and December I pin them up in the kitchen so everyone can see what is going on. This also avoids double booking which has happened in the past.

I don’t have set dates simply because lots of other things crop up last minute so I leave plenty of time just in case I don’t meet the original deadline.

How do you plan or organise Christmas.?  I am always looking for new tips to improve my own organisation.